Elitism Is Holding Rugby Back

This is no doubt a bit of a divisive headline. Depending on what club you played for, and what school you went to, it’s likely that you will either agree so strongly that this article seems obvious and maybe didn’t even need to be written. Or you may disagree so strongly that you disregard most of what follows. If you’re in the disagree camp, I would encourage you to read on to the end before dismissing.

A Perspective from NSW and Queensland

I’m putting this disclaimer out there at the start, this is written very much through a NSW and QLD lens, as I don’t know how things work in the other states. So apologies in advance to rugby loving people in the other states, I know you are probably working hard against the severely entrenched elitism from NSW Rugby Union and Queensland Rugby Union thinking that’s where all our rugby talent comes from, which it doesn’t.

Every year Junior Super Rugby and Junior Wallaby teams get announced, and right there next to the player’s name is the school they attend. Frequently all, or almost all players are from a select handful of elite private schools who play in the State’s top level GPS schoolboy comps. In and of itself this isn’t a problem. However, for some reason the junior clubs who realistically did most of the heavy lifting in developing these players don’t get a mention. Why on earth would this be the case?

This isn’t an attack on those GPS schools who do a great job in developing rugby players and who do compete at a very high level. Still, one can only assume the reason for Rugby Australia leaving out the clubs is to insinuate that only those GPS schools can develop players worthy of entering the professional pathways. Or to put it more plainly; “hey Mums and Dads, if you want your son to become a Wallaby then you must send them to one of these GPS schools, that’ll be $50k per year thanks”.

What NRL and AFL Get Right

Have we noticed how NRL and AFL don’t subscribe to this model? Both these sports use primarily the club system to identify talent. Notably, in the case of State of Origin, (one of the most watched events in the country) each player announces their junior club, and QLD also has their postcode on their sleeve. What a great way to build connection with young players, who can point to these stars and say; “he’s from my club”. As opposed to seeing a list of names of GPS schools your parents have no hope of affording to send you to.

So why is it done this way? I honestly have no idea, and it’s frankly baffling. If I had to guess, I would say maybe just because this is the way it’s always been done, and most if not all of the people on boards at RA/NSWRU/QRU probably attended these elite schools and have a narrow view that these schools are genuinely where all the best players come from, because it did in their day… A more cynical person might suppose that there are significant vested interests in these schools growing their enrolments each year from parents hoping their son might make it to rugby’s professional ranks. Parents who can afford $50k per year.

The Obsession with Schooling

One insidious thing that’s crept into our junior representative rugby pathways over the years, is the simple question “What school does he go to?”. Why the f*#k is this question even needed? As a player 20 odd years ago, who originally came from a different sport I remember getting asked what school I went to, and wondering why people were asking me this question. Rugby is the only sport that asks this question, and it’s still asking it.

If you’re a rep selector, then you’re looking at the skills and attributes of the player. What school that player attends is simply not relevant. Look at the players, pick the best ones, where they come from has no bearing on the talent, attitude, instincts, speed, endurance and strength required for whatever position you’re selecting. Having been in some of these selection conversations myself, I genuinely believe most rep selectors have no idea that this question has crept into their thinking.

Bypassing the GPS System

The real bull$#&t part of all this is that a decent number of the players named on that Junior Wallabies/Tahs/Reds squad list actually only got picked up on a GPS scholarship that season. These players were previously attending a state school, or more affordable private school, or were from regional NSW/QLD or from another state or country entirely. By the age of 16 a player who is getting selected for rep or national honours has already done the vast majority of their rugby development.

There’s no question that a large percentage of our top talent do come through these well-established pathways, and as previously mentioned the GPS schools do an excellent job of player development. But what’s the percentage of players that come from outside this pathway and get funnelled into the GPS system if “they want to make it”? 40%? 50%? 60%? Yet this elite private school myth is continually perpetuated.

Wallabies and Super Rugby Players from Non-Traditional Pathways

Here’s a list of current players who came through less traditional pathways, or at least this is where some of them came from before they got picked up by one of the GPS schools:

• Ryan Lonergan – Trinity Christian School – Tuggeranong Vikings
• Lachlan Lonergan – Trinity Christian School – Tuggeranong Vikings
• Harry Potter – Brighton Grammar School – Moorabbin Rams
• Pete Samu – Cranbourne Secondary College – Moorabbin Rams
• Josh Canham – Brighton Grammar School – Moorabbin Rams
• Hunter Paisami – Pakenham Secondary College – Harlequin Rugby Club
• Rob Valetini – Westall Secondary College – Harlequin Rugby Club
• Rob Leota – Thornbury High School – Northcote RC
• Marley Pearce – Aranmore Catholic College – Joondalup Brothers
• Carlo Tizzano – Trinity College
• Darcy Swain – JCU Mariners Cairns
• Declan Meredith – Redlynch State College – Barron Trinity Rugby Club
• Mac Grealy – Downlands College
• Angus Blyth – Casuarina Beach Rugby Club
• Ryan Smith – St Patrick’s College – Caboolture Snakes
• Fraser McReight – Albany Creek Brumbies
• Tate McDermott – Matthew Flinders Anglican College – Flinders Rugby Club
• Carter Gordon – Matthew Flinders Anglican College – Flinders Rugby Club
• Louis Werchon – Sunshine Coast Grammar School
• Len Ikitau – Marsden State High School
• Richie Asiata – Marsden State High School
• Harry Wilson – Gunnedah Red Devils
• Allan Alaalatoa – Ashfield Boys High School
• Billy Pollard – Barker College
• Nick Frost – Knox Grammar School – Hornsby Lions
• Luke Reimer – Barker College – Lindfield Rugby Club
• Jake Gordon – Christian Brothers High School – Canterbury Rugby Club
• Ben Donaldson – Waverley College
• Tane Edmed – Trinity Grammar School
• Lalakai Foketi – Balgowlah Boys’ High School
• Brandon Paenga-Amosa – Endeavour Sports High School
• Tom Robertson – Dubbo Kangaroos
• Harry Johnson-Holmes – Merewether High School – Cowra Eagles
• Taniela Tupou – Tonga
• Filipo Daugunu – Fiji
• Seru Uru – Fiji
• Aidan Ross – New Zealand
• Lukhan Salakaia-Loto – New Zealand

This list is by no means exhaustive, it’s just some that I’m aware of, I’m sure there are many more out there that readers know of and I probably got a couple wrong too. It’s clear though that a significant percentage of the current Wallabies and Super Rugby squads came from outside of the GPS system, or at least they originally did.

The Geography of Australian Rugby

Unfortunately, that isn’t where the elitism story ends. These GPS schools and the clubs they have ties with are almost all in inner-city Sydney and Brisbane. If you looked at these schools and the connected Shute Shield and Hospital Cup clubs on a map the concentration in the inner suburbs is intense.

Yet where’s the population growth happening in Australia due to affordability? It’s in the outer suburbs and in the regional areas. It’s the clubs in these areas who are battling hard against the system, often in Rugby League or AFL heartland just to scrape enough players together to field teams. Then when a player does come through one of these clubs do they get the tiny little bit of recognition on the team list and commentary shout-out that would be a massive boost and significantly help their player numbers next season? We all know the answer.

Which are the Shute Shield and Hospital Cup clubs located outside the inner suburbs? Answer: Hunter Wildfires. Also Bond University, although it could be argued that this is more of a regional rep team feeding from all Gold Coast teams. So 1 club in each comp depending on how you look at things.

If we exclude Hunter and Bond; in Sydney you have Warringah the most northerly, Souths the most southerly, and Parramatta the most westerly. In Brisbane; Norths the most northerly, Sunnybank the most southerly, East the most easterly, and Wests the most westerly. You still haven’t left the inner suburbs with any of these! Apparently rugby doesn’t exist in the outer suburbs of Sydney and Brisbane and the entirety of the rest of the country…

How to Fix Australian Rugby’s Elitism Problem

So what’s the fix?

For a start, we could at the very least recognise the junior clubs and non-GPS schools our top players come from. Ultimately, top junior talent is going to keep getting picked up by GPS schools as they look to find the best players to compete in what are tough competitions, and credit where it’s due, GPS rugby is a critical pillar of the rugby eco-system. Let’s also get a bit more media attention on the smaller and regional clubs where some of our stars come from, it was great to see Harry Wilson revisiting Gunnedah Red Devils and getting featured on Stan in the lead-in to a Wallabies test. More of that please! It would be great to see RA/NSWRU/QRU also doing this and not leaving it all to the game’s broadcaster. Show kids that there’s a pathway to become a Wallaby no matter where they live, play club, or go to school.

Rep coaches and selectors, for God’s sake stop asking what school players come from, banish this line of thinking from your mind. They’re either worthy of selection or they aren’t.

Shute Shield and Hospital Cup organisers, you really need to start thinking about which existing clubs outside the inner suburbs could be the next to join your ranks and then start helping to strengthen those clubs.

Then there’s the real pie-in-the-sky stuff. Like RA creating a national junior growth program to get rugby into schools that don’t currently play the sport. NRL and AFL have been doing this for years, but amazingly the battle isn’t totally lost yet. Rugby is late to start but better it’s late than never. Any progress is better than no progress.

The GPS schools and the inner-city clubs in Shute Shield and Hospital Cup are awesome at what they do, and these systems absolutely need to be appreciated and celebrated. They are bastions of strength, and the strongholds of our rugby eco-system! But to ignore everything outside of these systems, is by its very definition the elitism that’s stopping rugby from growing in Australia!